Two Guys Sports
Bruce BostwickWWE Smackdown / ECW Live Show in Tulsa - Results
July 3rd 2008 05:40
Our Night at the Smackdown / ECW Show in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Well the night started off with a ton of traffic. Not too bright to schedule a show to started at 6:30PM local time when you have to cross through a couple routes that people use to get from downtown to home during rush hour. Once we got there we hit even more traffic trying to get in the door. They only opened like three doors for people to have their ticket scanned and get into the arena. There are 12 doors, open them up and schedule more ticket scanners so people can get in, or open the doors earlier! In this arena there really are no bad seats. I now know the ideal spot for WWE Wrestling at the Tulsa Convention Center is about 8-10 rows directly in front of where we were sitting. The seats however were lined up absolutely perfect across from the entrance ramp, so we got to see EVERYTHING. For those who want a better idea of where they were… directly behind the announce table, but back up off the floor seats about 10 rows in from the wall. I am betting the people near us if we were ten rows closer wouldn’t have been nearly as annoying. The people a row in front of us kept getting up to go for this or that. The girls in the row behind us just went on and on, well the one in the middle did anyway. Trying to explain things to the ones on her left and right. Early on she was naming each wrestler as they showed up in the preshow videos on the Titantron. Problem with that was, she got a few wrong, at one point she identified Bam Neely as JBL. Those that know the two know just how wrong that is. She also despised Maryse apparently, calling her many names I will not repeat here. The one sitting on the aisle directly behind me would have liked a bigger seat, maybe one with a foot rest. I was kicked in the shoulder numerous times by her, a couple of light shoves of my shoulder as she had her foot resting on it was enough for her to get the point after about an hour or so. About half an hour before the show was over there was one other annoying guy one row down and across the walkway from us. He had a few too much beer and stood and stared at someone behind us chanting “You Suck”. It was directed at Edge in the ring talking, but we had all stopped that chant about 5 or more minutes ago. He was attempting to get it started again, but all he was doing was looking like an ass and making it hard for some to hear what Edge was rambling on about in the ring. Enough about the surrounding crowd.
Keep in mind I will be a bit biased since I was actually at the live event, that makes everything a bit more exciting.
The show started off with a dark match. Out came Trevor Murdoch who was going to sing for us. With it being so close to the Fourth of July he chose “Proud to be an American”. Say what you want, but all along I have felt he can actually sing pretty good. When he came out and as he said he was going to sing most of the crowd was booing him, by the time he was nearing the end of his song most of them were singing along. Then off went the lights and all the sound, his opponent emerged at the top of the ramp, it was Vladimir Koslov.
Shortly after the match got underway it was funny to see how quickly Trevor had become the fan favorite. It went the same way all of Koslov’s matches have though, He ended it with a headbutt, and pin. Murdoch did give him a much better fight and got a couple of near falls.
After that match it was time for Tazz’s music, he and Mike Adamle walked on down. Tazz to cheers, and Adamle to a chorus of boos.
Time to start the shows with some pyro that would fill the arena with smoke for quite some time.
Introducing the new ECW Champion, Mark Henry. He called himself the “Savior of ECW”, since he beat Kane who was heading to Raw with the belt. Down came Tommy Dreamer and Colin Delaney to interrupt. Tommy wanted to be the first challenger for the belt.
Henry had a different idea though, Delaney would get a match with him, and if he wins then Tommy gets his title shot. Colin accepted in an attempt to repay Dreamer for all the things he has done for him.
First match for the televised show, a six-man tag match between U.S. Champion Matt Hardy, Finlay, and Hornswaggle vs. Chavo Guerrero (accompanied by Bam Neely), John Morison, and The Miz.
This match was the normal type match that involves Hornswaggle. Finlay and Hardy did all the work, Horny was tossed into the tag champs by Finlay one on the floor, and he also hit a tadpole splash. Finlay ended up getting the pinfall against The Miz after he had knocked Neely off the ring apron with a shot from the shillelagh.
To the back in Teddy Long’s office, he is talking with a new talent for ECW, Atlas Ortiz. In walks Armando Estrada to talk about his contract in a loud manner.
Teddy puts him in a match against Ortiz coming up next. After the break, and yes even in the arena you get a commercial break, but when there it is just quiet downtime where they make occasional announcements. Ortiz looked pretty good in his debut. It is strange, about a week ago I was surfing around and looking at some wrestling pics from the developmental areas of the WWE, and I cam across Ortiz’s pic. I turned the laptop so my wife could see it and joked, “Look Honey, it is Carlito’s new tag team partner,” due to his hairdo. Now he shows up on ECW a week later. He did win the match against Estrada, he did look to have a layer of flab on top of his muscle though, seeing it live.
The final match that was part of the ECW show was the Mark Henry vs. Colin Delaney match. It wasn’t very exciting as can be expected when putting a 100 pounder in there with a Silverback. Needless to say The world’s Strongest Man won the match.
It was intermission time, although no one pointed out this fact. The refs from ECW and Smackdown began switching over the ring from one brand to the other. It was interesting to watch.
The obviously change the ring skirting because it clearly says ECW or Smackdown on it, and it is also easy to realize they change all of the ring ropes in between, what I didn’t expect was they removed the entire ring mat and replaced it too. This whole process did take a while.
I will wrap up the ECW show here before continuing. Yes, it was more exciting because I was actually there, but even in the arena with them the ECW show needs some improvement down the road. Otherwise they will be looking for a new network to air it on, too. I did watch the recording of the show that I had recorded from Sci-Fi, and realized it wasn’t all that interesting. I also didn’t make it on camera for the ECW portion. (I won’t know till after watching Smackdown! on Friday if I made it on their show.) Also, I know it would make things a bit harder, but they need to separate the live shows. I have a second solution to that comment later.
I am going to end this post here, but if you would like to hear about the rest of the show click this link below. Please know this next post will contain the outcome of all the matches that will be aired on this Friday night’s Smackdown! episode. If you don’t want to know who won before you watch the show, please don’t read it.
Click here for the results from Friday Night Smackdown - July 4, 2008
Well the night started off with a ton of traffic. Not too bright to schedule a show to started at 6:30PM local time when you have to cross through a couple routes that people use to get from downtown to home during rush hour. Once we got there we hit even more traffic trying to get in the door. They only opened like three doors for people to have their ticket scanned and get into the arena. There are 12 doors, open them up and schedule more ticket scanners so people can get in, or open the doors earlier! In this arena there really are no bad seats. I now know the ideal spot for WWE Wrestling at the Tulsa Convention Center is about 8-10 rows directly in front of where we were sitting. The seats however were lined up absolutely perfect across from the entrance ramp, so we got to see EVERYTHING. For those who want a better idea of where they were… directly behind the announce table, but back up off the floor seats about 10 rows in from the wall. I am betting the people near us if we were ten rows closer wouldn’t have been nearly as annoying. The people a row in front of us kept getting up to go for this or that. The girls in the row behind us just went on and on, well the one in the middle did anyway. Trying to explain things to the ones on her left and right. Early on she was naming each wrestler as they showed up in the preshow videos on the Titantron. Problem with that was, she got a few wrong, at one point she identified Bam Neely as JBL. Those that know the two know just how wrong that is. She also despised Maryse apparently, calling her many names I will not repeat here. The one sitting on the aisle directly behind me would have liked a bigger seat, maybe one with a foot rest. I was kicked in the shoulder numerous times by her, a couple of light shoves of my shoulder as she had her foot resting on it was enough for her to get the point after about an hour or so. About half an hour before the show was over there was one other annoying guy one row down and across the walkway from us. He had a few too much beer and stood and stared at someone behind us chanting “You Suck”. It was directed at Edge in the ring talking, but we had all stopped that chant about 5 or more minutes ago. He was attempting to get it started again, but all he was doing was looking like an ass and making it hard for some to hear what Edge was rambling on about in the ring. Enough about the surrounding crowd.
Keep in mind I will be a bit biased since I was actually at the live event, that makes everything a bit more exciting.
Trevor Murdoch opening the show in a dark match with Vladimir Koslov, after he sings.
Vladimir Koslov heads to the ring.
After that match it was time for Tazz’s music, he and Mike Adamle walked on down. Tazz to cheers, and Adamle to a chorus of boos.
We weren't ready for the pyro. Man was it LOUD!
Mark Henry makes his way to the ring with his new title belt.
Dreamer tries to get a title shot.
First match for the televised show, a six-man tag match between U.S. Champion Matt Hardy, Finlay, and Hornswaggle vs. Chavo Guerrero (accompanied by Bam Neely), John Morison, and The Miz.
The combatants get ready for their six-man tag match.
To the back in Teddy Long’s office, he is talking with a new talent for ECW, Atlas Ortiz. In walks Armando Estrada to talk about his contract in a loud manner.
Atlas Ortiz introduces himself to Armando Estrada.
The final match that was part of the ECW show was the Mark Henry vs. Colin Delaney match. It wasn’t very exciting as can be expected when putting a 100 pounder in there with a Silverback. Needless to say The world’s Strongest Man won the match.
It was intermission time, although no one pointed out this fact. The refs from ECW and Smackdown began switching over the ring from one brand to the other. It was interesting to watch.
The Ref's change the ring over from one brand to another.
I will wrap up the ECW show here before continuing. Yes, it was more exciting because I was actually there, but even in the arena with them the ECW show needs some improvement down the road. Otherwise they will be looking for a new network to air it on, too. I did watch the recording of the show that I had recorded from Sci-Fi, and realized it wasn’t all that interesting. I also didn’t make it on camera for the ECW portion. (I won’t know till after watching Smackdown! on Friday if I made it on their show.) Also, I know it would make things a bit harder, but they need to separate the live shows. I have a second solution to that comment later.
I am going to end this post here, but if you would like to hear about the rest of the show click this link below. Please know this next post will contain the outcome of all the matches that will be aired on this Friday night’s Smackdown! episode. If you don’t want to know who won before you watch the show, please don’t read it.
Click here for the results from Friday Night Smackdown - July 4, 2008
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